Bridge to Almost Nowhere

December 31, 2011 at 12:00 am

To the Editor:

As a very concerned resident of South Bristol, and the person who owns the property directly on the Gut, adjacent to the proposed construction of a new swing bridge, I am writing to voice my concern that this project has become a boondoggle and a waste of the scarce resources and revenue available to Maine DOT and the state in general.

Specifically, what was once a $675,000 repair to the existing swing bridge has now ballooned into a $10,000,000 project that is unnecessary, wasteful, disruptive, and destructive to an entire town and way of life that those of us who love South Bristol and Maine would hate to see destroyed forever. The shear size and wastefulness of this project are reason enough to look for other solutions to a problem that barely exists in the first place.

My family has lived with and on the swing bridge for more than 10 years. There are certainly more sane and reasonable alternatives to repairing the bridge than this current solution. I ask all of the powers that be to look into this situation and take action to halt the wasteful and unnecessary $10,000,000 destruction of a town and way of life.